48 hours for friends

though we couldn’t physically come together, our community still manged to show up in a big way.

In a year in which everything was different, the Development Office realized early on that hosting a traditional Blue Party this spring would be out of the question— and that attempting to replicate the uniqueness of the event in an online format would be nearly impossible.

So the resourceful crew pivoted, and instead focused on looking for new ways to raise money for the SFFS Adjustable Tuition program, while also offering our community the opportunity to come together virtually in a way that would feel inclusive and in line with our values.

The office began thinking about how to honor both the intent and experience of Blue Party, recognizing the two foundational components of this event are:

1) Its role as an important fundraiser for our Adjustable Tuition program, which provides tuition assistance to one in four students at SFFS and is one of the school’s biggest expenses. The Adjustable Tuition program ensures that Friends is accessible to families regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances and students get the support they need through free lunches, subsidized tutoring, and access to extracurricular lessons.

And 2) Its role as a community connection point for our families. “Holding these two concepts up as our guiding principles,” Assistant Director of Development Emma

Sonduck says, “we arrived at the idea of a giving day that would culminate in a virtual community celebration. Those two elements allowed us to continue the important work of raising funds for adjustable tuition, while also offering our parent community the opportunity to connect in a meaningful and celebratory way.”

The office also realized numerous benefits to the new giving day format:

• The structure of a giving day, with its unique website home base and marketing opportunities, provided a more expansive platform to share compelling information about the important role that adjustable tuition plays for Friends families.

• Additionally, a giving day offered the opportunity to expand the audience for our message beyond just our parent community, and through email and social media channels, the school appealed to alumni families, friends, and grandfriends in its fundraising efforts.

• Finally, the Development

Office was able to leverage the generosity of the SFFS Board to create three separate matching opportunities as part of its fundraising push. “We could not be more grateful for their leadership,” says Emma.

In the end, 48 Hours for Friends raised just over $252,000 to support adjustable tuition—the most a Blue Party has ever raised! The event was capped off when over 90 families joined our virtual Blue celebration to hear Head of School Mike Hanas share the ways he (and we) are saying “Yes!” to important moments during a challenging time, enjoyed a video highlighting

OUR REIMAGINED BLUE, BY THE NUMBERS:

• # of families who joined our virtual Blue Party: 90

• # of SFFS Board challenges: 3 challenges, totalling $30,000

• # of gifts made: 267

• # of dollars raised: $252,291

• # of Parent Gifts: 172

• # of Trustee Gifts: 23

• # of Alumni Parent Gifts: 25

• # of GrandFriend Gifts: 30

• # of Alumni Gifts: 4

• # of M&M Bags Sent Home in Pre-Party Care Pacakges: 348

all that we’ve accomplished over this last year, and then connected with friends in some fun-filled breakout rooms, courtesy of our parent volunteers.

On behalf of SFFS, we are so grateful for the response of our community to this reinvented Blue. You proved that this community, in the face of unprecendented challenges, can achieve more than ever, while staying grounded in our values and commitment to one another. •